Thanks for your input LilBambi.What distro are u using yourself ? Was it Mandrake or RedHat ? I'm a bit confused now, was sure it was Mandrake. . . ? Bruno

Sorry Bruno -- I should have been clear on that point ... Actually it is both ... Mandrake (since 7.0) and RedHat (since 6.0).I am currently using RedHat 7.2 on my alternate computer (through KVM switch) but we have 11 networked boxes here. Mainly with versions of Mandrake and RedHat on them. We also have one Win95 (dualboot) and one Win98se (solo box). In addition we have a couple freeBSD installations (standalone and dualboot).So the confusion was quite understandable

I am currently using RedHat 7.2 on my alternate computer (through KVM switch) but we have 11 networked boxes here. Mainly with versions of Mandrake and RedHat on them. We also have one Win95 (dualboot) and one Win98se (solo box). In addition we have a couple freeBSD installations (standalone and dualboot).

Does that mean I can ask you to write a few lines about easy software install in RedHat ? Please ?And what about freeBSD ? You and ThunderRiver look like the only ones that could be able to shed some light on software install in freeBSD. Do they use RPM ? Tarballs ?See, we have lots of questions in this forum, are hungry for answers, and would appreciate your expertise. Bruno

RPM stands for RedHat Package Management, but is pretty universal and used in modern Distro's. In many cases a simple click on the RPM icon will open a GUI for easy installation. Sometimes you can even do a test-install to see if all dependencies are correct.

For the commandline we have: ( assuming we want to install samba-2.2.1a-4 )

Slackware and Slack-based distro's like VectorLinux use .tgz packages.

Using the Midnight Commander, an ancient looking, but very effective tool, installing slack-packages are a breeze; su root, highlight the package, press F2 and choose install.

The Midnight Commander ( mc ) is a very powerful program, allowing you to manage files, copy, editing, moving, searching, installing, zipping, unzip, converting from one zip format to another, send files to a remote host, undelete files ( ext2 only ), link, symlink, chown, chmod, all those actions can be done with this "Miracle Commander".

MC is available for almost every Linux distro, also Mandrake and RedHat, see install CD's, install it on your computer and have a look, just type < mc > in a console for the program to start. ( Warning: it's an ugly ******* compared to modern GUI interfaces ! )

Also you could use the package manager: "pkginstall" like this:

# pkginstall name_of_package.tgz

That will take care of the installation for you

Using RPM's in Slackware means that you have to convert them to .tgz with a tool called rpm2tgz. VectorLinux is less picky it accepts RedHat's rpm's without complaining.

IN DEPTH,
Download the gkrellm-2.0.tar.gz package to your /home directory.
Open a console

# tar -xvzf gkrellm-2.0.tar.gz ( Will unzip the package to a new directory gkrellm-2.0 )
Note: for .tar.bz2 packages we do < tar -xvjf >, for .tgz packages < tar -xvfz >
# ls ( Check the name of the new directory, it might be gkrellm2 )
# mv gkrellm-2.0 /usr/src ( Will move it to your sources directory )
# cd /usr/src/gkrellm-2.0 ( Will put you right inside the directory )
# ls ( Will list all the files in the directory )

IMPORTANT: Do read all relevant files like README and INSTALL they contain essential info about dependencies and install instructions. If no special install instructions are given:

$ ./configure

( That is dot slash configure )

If any errors occur during the configure process read the config.log, see what went wrong. If it misses a special lib file, see if the file is installed, if not install it and start again. If it is installed but the script can't find it consult the troubleshoot section below.

In the last few lines printed to your screen, make install will tell you where to find the executable, relevant files and doc's. Note this down it saves you searching for it as you want to change the config file for the program.If the compiling was successful you can now run the program by typing "gkrellm" at the prompt. ( most likely the executable will be in your path" /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin )

If you like, you can remove the sources if you're done "rm -rf gkrellm-2.0" but if you've got enough space on your HD just leave it there, makes a re-install ( only "make" and "make install" ) easy.

NOTE: Described here are actions for Mandrake, it will work for other distro's too, but names may be slightly different.

INTRO: These are the 4 steps:
1) use xev for getting the keycodes,
2) make a script mapping the keys,
3) make a new directory in the startmenu for odd actions
4) use kmenuedit to assign the keys to entries in the startmenu.

Now press a key and note down the keycode, repeat this for every key you want to assign an action to ( also volume up/down, right and left "windows" key, logitech-key, any key on your board ! )
A total of 22 Multi Media keys can be mapped.

2) Next step is making a text file in the autostart directory of your window manager ( or put the lines in /etc/rc.d/rc.local )

$ vi /home/bruno/.kde/Autostart/multikeys

( replace "bruno", dot kde )
< i > ( to get vi in insert mode )
This is the text for that file:

This will bring up a different menu-tool, with in the left pane the entries in the startmenu and down to the right the hotkey assignment.
Simply select the "program" on the left, press: current key "none" and you will get a dialog, press the multi-key you want it associated with, press apply, and you're ready for the fun of your fancy keys. ( Don't forget your mail and browser )

In kmenuedit you can set any key combination to your favorite programs ( Alt+x for xine, Alt+h for home, Alt+g for gimp, etc. Warning: the Ctrl key is already used for many shortcuts, see Control Center --> Look and Feel --> Shortcuts for a complete list. )

TIP: Get your console under an easy key too. After all it is your most used app !!

The only downside is that you'll have to press the key twice in order to get ~ " ` ^ ´ . or press the " followed by a space to get the accent print to screen. There is even a clear difference between ¨ and " . . the first is pressed twice and the second is the same key pressed once followed by a space . . . ( only pressing the " prints nothing to screen )

There have been several questions in other threads about partitions. LilBambi gave some good suggestions, let me try to make an overview:

For the current situation on your HD:

$ df -h

( partitions their sizes and space usage )
Do note down on what hda? lives what partition, this might come in handy at re-install, repartition and crash recovery.
( hda is the first HD, hdb the second, hdc the third etc. etc. hda1 is the first primary partition, hda5 the first logical partition on the first HD )

Everything in one partition is not a good idea, at least you should have a separate /home partition and give it space enough to grow. The clever thing about a /home partition is that when you do a re-install or upgrade you can leave it as it is, saving all your personal settings, mail, addressbook etc.

The minimum number of partitions and their size are ( if you have 5G to spare and full install of modern distro ) :
3 G for /
1+ G for the /home partition
500 MB for the /swap ( more swap is waste )

( Sure you can do with a lot less, some distro's are happy with -500MB and still have X )

A more comfortable partition table is ( 10G to spare ):
5 G for /
4+ G for
/home
500 MB for /swap

A "deluxe" and more complicated partition table is ( 15+ to spare ):
2 G for /
4 G for /usr
1 G for /var ( a lot of writing is done in the /var/log's )
500 MB for /swap
5+ G for /home
7+ G for /backup ( storage )

Any extra space could be added to /home and /backup.

Bruno

Thanks to LilBambi

NOTE: An important note from Prelude76:

Quote

SuSE users should have a fairly large /opt partition, as this is where most 3rd party apps get installed.

Most of you are familiar with the Fat16, Fat32 and NTFS filesystem for windows. In linux we have Ext2, Ext3, Reiserfs and Xfs. The last 3 are journaled filesystems, in fact Ext3 is the same as Ext2 but only with a journal added. A journaled filesystem allows quicker recovery in case of system crash or power faillure.

Reiserfs and Xfs are very new systems partly still under development. I would advice the Ext3. You can easily convert Ext2 ( Linux native ) to Ext3 without re-format or re-install:

# tune2fs -j /dev/hda?

( where you replace the "?" with the number of the partition, see previous text about "partitions" )

After you have done this for all your partitions you'll have to change the entries in your /etc/fstab :

$ su
< password >
# mcedit /etc/fstab

Change the ext2 in ext3 for the partitions you converted ( sure you can use vi as editor too ! ) There you go ! Now you have a journaled filesystem.